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ewein2412...or whatever. I am punchy, having produced well over 50,000 words in the past month, and just finished a draft of the ghostwritten novel. Even if I'd participated in NaNoWriMo I wouldn't have qualified--my own word count is spread over two discrete works and the finished draft was started before november began. (And of course, it's december now.) But--I've finished my slog, and can now THROW myself into Christmas prep and, OH MY GOD, the GIRL SPY IN NAZI-OCCUPIED FRANCE who is EATING MY LIFE.
who knew.
I should have known, since the "prisoner of the gestapo" trope was one of the serious obsessions of my early teens. (I wonder where those illustrations are. I drew a lot when I was 13...)
so, my German speaking friends, I need to know how to say:
"I can see the sea from here";
"The sea is that way";
and
"I have a flat tire."
who knew.
I should have known, since the "prisoner of the gestapo" trope was one of the serious obsessions of my early teens. (I wonder where those illustrations are. I drew a lot when I was 13...)
so, my German speaking friends, I need to know how to say:
"I can see the sea from here";
"The sea is that way";
and
"I have a flat tire."
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no subject
Date: 2009-12-04 03:06 pm (UTC)"Ich kann das Meer von hier aus sehen."
"Das Meer liegt in dieser Richtung." (or, more informal: "Zum Meer geht's da lang!" I should point out it would be more natural to say in German, "Zum Strand geht's in diese Richtung" or "Zur Küste geht's in diese Richtung" if you're giving directions to the beach or coast.)
"Ich habe einen platten Reifen." Or simply, less formally: "Ich habe einen Platten."
no subject
Date: 2009-12-04 03:32 pm (UTC)Can you weigh in at the link below and come to a consensus about the second statement? The sense is giving directions, but so far no actual beach is involved--they're literally looking at a strip of water on the horizon. Also, the speaker is British, so would think of it as "the sea." She's saying, That's the right direction.
Oh, and I should have mentioned that the tire in question is a bicycle tire (tyre, whatever, I'm American, it's an english tyre, the imaginary person in question is Scottish but speaking German). Does that make a difference?
http://eegatland.livejournal.com/65337.html?thread=920889#t920889
no subject
Date: 2009-12-04 04:29 pm (UTC)In that case, I'd vote for "Zum Meer geht's da lang!" or "Zum Meer geht es da lang" as the speaker is British and thus might want to be a bit more correct and not shorten "geht es".
Tyre: then make it "Ich habe einen Platten." That works for bicycle and car tires alike, for the record.
no subject
Date: 2009-12-04 08:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-04 03:07 pm (UTC)Depends a bit on the emphasis. Literally it would be "Ich kann das Meer von hier aus sehen", but in German that overemphasises who is doing the seeing. If the sea is at least as important than the speaker, I would go for "Von hier aus kann ich das Meer sehen". IF the speaker is not important at all, "Von hier aus kann man das Meer sehen".
"The sea is that way";
If this is a statement about where the sea is, it would be "Das Meer liegt da drüben". But it is more likely a statment about how to get there, in which case the German would naturally say "Zum Meer geht's dahin" - "one goes to the sea that way".
"I have a flat tire."
"Ich habe einen Platten" (slangy) or "Ich habe eine Reifenpanne" (more formal)
no subject
Date: 2009-12-04 03:38 pm (UTC)http://eegatland.livejournal.com/65337.html?thread=920633#t920633
--which is definitely a question of direction.
also, it's a bicycle tire, if that changes the vocab at all.
no subject
Date: 2009-12-04 08:54 pm (UTC)many thanks!
no subject
Date: 2009-12-04 04:48 pm (UTC)I will totally read that when it comes out!
no subject
Date: 2009-12-04 08:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-04 06:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-04 08:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-04 07:13 pm (UTC)You seem to be set for German translation, so I will confine myself to: dude!
no subject
Date: 2009-12-04 08:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-04 07:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-04 09:00 pm (UTC)I can just exactly imagine what the pictures would have looked like, too. The wonderful thing about those comics was that they didn't really pay much attention to plausibility.
*feels the call*
Date: 2009-12-05 12:45 am (UTC)Ich kann das Meer von hier (aus) sehen or
Ich kann den Ozean von hier (aus) sehen.
The "aus" can be optional
Das Meer ist in dieser Richtung.
Der Ozean ist in dieser Richtung.
or more colloquially
Zum Meer geht's da lang.
Zum Ozean geht's da lang.
Ozean as such is more stilted and most people would use Meer for sea (I always have to warn my pupils that German See isn't English sea, it's lake).
Ich habe eine Reifenpanne.
more colloquial:
Ich habe einen Platten.
Mein Wagen hat einen Platten. (My car has...)
Re: *feels the call*
Date: 2009-12-05 12:48 am (UTC)Re: *feels the call*
Date: 2009-12-05 10:30 am (UTC)"Meer" seems to be the right word, as a Brit would use "sea" rather than "ocean" (An American would say "I can see the ocean"--aren't languages SUBTLE!)
So, I was a bit embarrassed to put this in an open post, but as it's now buried in the comments I'll ask you. She also wants to say "I am a German spy." (She isn't; she's being stupid and obnoxious; and explaining why she's speaking German.)
thanks for the other translations, btw, even late--it's really fascinating to compare the subtle differences of meaning and intent. I never took a course in German but I did a crash study of a first year university level textbook one summer so that I could do some basic translating. I can't *construct* sentences but I can generally figure out the meaning. My vocab is pretty limited, though!
Re: *feels the call*
Date: 2009-12-05 11:55 am (UTC)When my eye trouble started I extended the siesta time (without much thought) from one hour to two/three hours - when I have other health concerns like on Friday (I seem to have an inflamed thyroid) I sleep even longer.
Being single all of this doesn't inconvenience anyone, I just have to get my regular preparation and correcting done after I get up. And that's when I check the internet for news.
... I know you probably didn't want to know that in detail, but I wanted to tell you ^^.
I'm a German spy=
Ich bin eine deutsche Geheimagentin. (secret agent)
Ich bin eine deutsche Agentin.
Ich bin ein deutscher Spion.
(Spion is probably nearest to Spy and does not have a female form like Agent does)
If you want to emphasize that she's a spy for the Germans
Ich bin ein Agentin der Deutschen. (of the Germans)
Ich bin eine Agentin von Deutschland. (from Germany)
Ich bin ein Spion der Deutschen.
Ich bin ein Spion aus Deutschland/ von Deutschland.
If she wants to provoke:
Ich bin eine Agentin der Nazis.
*feels chuffed she could tell you something the others haven't well interpreted yet, because they haven't read it yet= translation secret agent*
Re: *feels the call*
Date: 2009-12-05 12:11 pm (UTC)That was me - for some reason logged out of LJ. Hasn't happened in a while.
Considering how long ago that was, it's pretty impressive. My three years of French at grammar school about 25 years ago have only resulted in retaining certain phrases and pieces of vocabulary (mostly the ones connected to English or Latin, which I've lost even more of, but which had a deeper connection to History studies at university).
I regularly see parents of pupils who feel they ought to know more English to help their boys, than they actually do. My conclusion: if you have no reason to truly stay in contact with a language, you will lose most of it at some point - unless it was the language of your birth and you grew up in it and then moved to a foreign country (like my Dad's Arabian).
Whenever UK or US friends visit me (which is rarely), It takes me a few days to get back into fluent speaking or thinking in English. A German classroom doesn't lend itself to that, even though my private life (books, internet interaction, games) - apart from my family - is mostly in English. Listening to my English teaching colleagues (very rarely speaking English to other teachers), this hypothesis bears out.
*Anglophile*
Re: *feels the call*
Date: 2009-12-05 05:39 pm (UTC)That's perfect. She is being VERY provoking, agent is a better word than spy anyway, and I love that the word has a feminine form. Also, "Nazi" will be recognizable and meaningful to non-German-speaking readers (which I have to assume my intended audience mostly is) in a way that Deutschen or Deutschland wouldn't be.
And I don't mind hearing the details at all. High time I added you to my friends list, anyway!
re languages-- I did years and years of french in high school and university and then nothing until about 3 years ago, when I started taking a refresher course at the local college. I was inspired after meeting my high school french teacher at a class reunion--I was MORTIFIED because after I said, "oh, my french is so rusty, I must speak english," she told me she had come specially to the reunion to see me and that I had been her best student ever! For a year after that I used to dream that I met her again and spoke to her in french. (I did, thank god, redeem myself the next time I met her).
Coincidentally to this conversation, she was Jewish and a French Resistance member. She died last year. One of the cooler people who has ever crossed my path:
http://www.pennlive.com/news/patriotnews/index.ssf?/base/news/121038901188150.xml&coll=1
Re: *feels the call*
Date: 2009-12-05 10:06 pm (UTC)I love being able to help out favourite authors in small ways. Somehow I don't think just buying you guys books (Sherwood Smith, P.C. Hodgell are similar favourites) is enough to show my appreciation for the hours of intellectual challenge and enjoyment (and just plain escape) I can get out of your books.
Which is why my mantra has become *I love the internet*, even though I'm very aware of the dangers of its use (and try conveying this to my pupils as well).
For me personally the fact that I can interact with some of you, and that you have very personal voices in your blogs as well as in your writing makes me a more loyal supporter. I think we readers are sensitive to whether a blog is only a marketing tool or people enjoy (whether daily or just occasionally) sharing their life beyond the books - and as you're a writer you're fun to read even when it's just a bit of detail of your obsession with ospreys ^^.
Re: French
Gah, well at least you really shaped up and were able to reconfirm her good opinion of you ^^.
Whenever I come into contact with people who have survived the war - on which side - it really strengthens the conviction that whatever hardships have come after, they have an unshakeable core of knowing that they have already survived the worst that life can throw at them (My grandmother, my mother - who was around 13 when she had to flee from East Prussia to the west -, my uncle who had to flee from his boarding school as a 16-year-old alone and make his way to the west alone, before he found the only survivors of his immediate family (my grandma and my mum) again, Holocaust survivors).
My dad couldn't sleep at the time I was unemployed for some months, but my mum could: I was healthy and we had peace, everything else was just a bonus and would eventually sort itself out. (My dad came to Germany as a student in the 60s).
Re: *feels the call*
Date: 2009-12-18 10:34 am (UTC)And look at the huge response I got--3 of you leaping right in with the translations, another saying, "oh well I see you've got that covered"--and I know there is at least one other german speaker on my flist who didn't respond but who I could have nabbed.
.......................
re. the war, you are absolutely right. I keep bumping into people who have tales to tell. My son's trampoline instructor was telling me about her 90-year-old father, who landed on the Normandy beaches at 19. He came home eventually, raised a family, still lives on his own. But he's recently contracted a chest infection and all of a sudden he's having nightmares about Normandy again.
Sorry for taking so long to get back to you!
Re: *feels the call*
Date: 2009-12-18 03:51 pm (UTC)And anyway real life comes first.
Re: *feels the call*
Date: 2009-12-05 10:27 pm (UTC)"Also, "Nazi" will be recognizable and meaningful to non-German-speaking readers (which I have to assume my intended audience mostly is) in a way that Deutschen or Deutschland wouldn't be."
That makes a lot of sense to me.
Re: *feels the call*
Date: 2009-12-18 10:43 am (UTC)Re: *feels the call*
Date: 2009-12-18 03:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-15 03:53 pm (UTC)Thanks,
Miriam
no subject
Date: 2009-12-18 10:36 am (UTC)If you email me at ewein2412 *AT* yahoo.co.uk I will send you another chunk when I get around to it.
and welcome to my flist, too!
cheers,
e wein